The Next Generation Network (NGN) is a network integrating fixed communication with mobile communication, and supports a plurality of access technologies such as Cable, Digital Subscriber Line (xDSL), 802.11 Wireless Local Access Network (WLAN), 802.16 Wireless Metropolitan Access Network (WMAN), and the Third Generation Radio Access Network (3G RAN), etc. The NGN is required to support mobility including nomadism and roaming. Mobility may occur within an access network, or may occur across access networks. These access networks may be homogeneous or heterogeneous. Mobile Internet Protocol (MIP) supports mobility across sub-networks, regardless of the access technology on bottom layer. Therefore, MIP is one of the important solutions to mobility in heterogeneous access.
MIP is an important technology supporting mobility of equipment and can support globally roaming of mobile nodes and maintain the continuity of services. The MIP technology is classified into two categories: host-based mobility, i.e., the traditional Mobile IPv4 and Mobile IPv6, and Dual-Stack Mobile IPv4 and Dual-Stack Mobile IPv6; and network-based mobility, i.e., Proxy Mobile IPv4 and Proxy Mobile IPv6. The host-based MIP system is typically composed of a Mobile Node (MN), a Foreign Agent (FA) and a Home Agent (HA). The network-based MIP system is typically composed of an MN, a Mobile Access Gateway (MAG), and a Local Mobility Anchor (LMA). The HA/LMA typically authenticates MIP signaling received to ensure its integrity.
NGN is an IP-based network, and faces greater security threats compared with the traditional telecommunication network. As mentioned above, NGN is required to support mobility technologies on transport layer, such as MIP technology, and thus it is necessary to solve the security problems, such as authentication and key negotiation, MIP signaling security, and security in handover, in mobility on transport layer in NGN.
So far, the mobility security on transport layer has not yet been involved in NGN.